


i'll act as your shield, let me hold you tight (i'll do my best to keep you safe through the night)

by namedawesome (davethetennant)



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Couch Cuddles, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eve and Lucifer break up, F/M, Lucifer goes to therapy, Protective Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Slight Violence, Trixie Decker & Lucifer Morningstar Bonding, season 4x07 tag/spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-04-07 23:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19094803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/davethetennant/pseuds/namedawesome
Summary: Lucifer had never been as angry as he was in that moment. The Detective’s little urchin had come for a visit and he’d been just a little annoyed but then the feeling had dissipated as soon as it had arrived, and all he felt was a strange fondness. He let her interrogate Eve, reminding him of the Detective, so much so that he couldn’t hide a smile as he watched the child for a moment. He caught Eve frowning at him, wondered very briefly why, and then excused himself like the spawn probably expected him to (and when she asked if Eve was the friend that he needed, well, he was touched because it was a very ‘Detective-y’ thing to say and he… well, he missed her didn’t he? He wasn’t spending time with her and he… he missed it. Missed game nights and dinners and breakfasts and nights at his piano and just her and he… well he was always wanting, so he might as well want that too…).





	i'll act as your shield, let me hold you tight (i'll do my best to keep you safe through the night)

**Author's Note:**

> the long awaited Trixie in the penthouse fic!!!

Lucifer had never been as angry as he was in that moment. The Detective’s little urchin had come for a visit and he’d been just a little annoyed but then the feeling had dissipated as soon as it had arrived, and all he felt was a strange fondness. He let her interrogate Eve, reminding him of the Detective, so much so that he couldn’t hide a smile as he watched the child for a moment. He caught Eve frowning at him, wondered very briefly why, and then excused himself like the spawn probably expected him to (and when she asked if Eve was the friend that he needed, well, he was touched because it was a very ‘Detective-y’ thing to say and he… well, he missed her didn’t he? He wasn’t spending time with her and he… he missed it. Missed game nights and dinners and breakfasts and nights at his piano and just her and he… well he was always wanting, so he might as well want that too…). 

He had missed the small human and was glad to see her, but he knew it was short lived. No matter what the child had told him, he knew that the Detective would never allow her offspring near him ever again. Not now that she knew. So, when he heard the elevator, well… he thought it was the Detective until he heard the gun cock and Eve yell for him. He was barely aware of the wall and the glass he reached through to get to one of the men who had come into his home and tried to kill his humans (his _child_ ). He growled as he pushed the rest of the way through and the man, that “Pony-boy” who was pointing a gun at Eve and his little urchin, well that man… He would get so much worse than his friend had. 

The man had asked what he was, and Lucifer had roared, inhuman and angry. How dare they try to hurt those that were his to protect, those that held pieces of him. He knocked the man unconscious after he’d crushed his hand, Beatrice’s frightened cries occupying more of his brain than anything else at the moment (and the thought that the man could’ve hurt her, had threatened to kill her made him want to hold her tight and never let go, and that was almost rivaled by his need to punish the one that had sanctioned the killing). “Beatrice!” he called (half growled), and almost flipped the furniture out of the way to get to her, when she rounded the corner, Eve trailing behind her like she was trying to stop her from running to him. As soon as the little girl had her arms wrapped around his waist, he relaxed just a little. He placed a hand on her head and when Eve tried to pull little girl off of him, explaining that he wasn’t fond of children, he’d growled at her. He knew she was trying to help, but he was much too keyed up to realize what she was trying to do. 

He picked the little girl up and let her wrap her arms around his neck. He could feel Eve watching him in confusion, but he paid her no mind. He opened the storage ottoman near the coffee table with the urchin still tucked into his arms and pulled out a blanket that he knew Eve had only seen once (she had tried to use it when she first moved in, but Lucifer had gently tugged it out of her hands and put it away, it wasn’t hers, and for some reason he couldn’t let her use it, or even tell her why when she asked). He set the child down on the couch and the way she sobbed his name and asked him not to leave her made him hush her gently. “Here we are, dear heart,” he said, wrapping her in the blanket. 

The little girl sniffled and cuddled deeper into the blanket before leaning against him again. He picked her up and rubbed at her back as she told him, “This is the softest blanket in the whole world…” 

(Her voice was soft, and scared, and he wanted to make sure she never felt like that ever again, so he held her tighter and took a deep slow breath.)

“It’s your mother’s favorite,” is all he said. He noticed Eve’s features harden but paid it little mind. The elevator sounded again, and he tensed, ready for a fight but it was just the Detective and the Douche. 

“Trixie!” Chloe shouted, noting the unconscious man but not the fact that the Devil was holding her daughter. 

“Here, Detective,” he called.

Chloe’s eyes hit his and she relaxed in relief. “She’s okay?” She asked stepping over the unconscious man to get to her daughter. 

“Scared, I think,” he told her. He waited for her to take the little girl from him, but she just placed a hand on the little girl’s back gently and placed a kiss to her head. Lucifer watched the cops as they called for a medic. He told them about the other man he’d left in the closet, and they doubled their request. 

Chloe tried to pull the little girl out of his arms, but she refused to budge, and she gave up. “Thank you, Lucifer,” Chloe told him. She briefly rested her head on the shoulder opposite her daughter and started talking gently to the little girl. “Can Mommy have a hug, Monkey?” she asked after a moment of talking softly to her. 

The little girl nodded, but only let go of Lucifer with one arm. She settled back onto Lucifer’s shoulder and said, “This is the softest blanket ever, Mommy…”

“I know, baby,” Chloe said with a teary laugh. “Lucifer lets me use it whenever I’m here.”

Lucifer looked up and saw Dan glaring at him and looked away, toward Eve who also looked angry. He tried to urge the girl into her mother’s arms so that the two of them would stop glaring at him, but she refused to budge. He sighed but didn’t try to detach the little girl again. The Detective and Daniel asked him to come to the precinct with them, so he huddled in the back with the little girl and Eve. 

When they got there, Daniel and Chloe went into the interrogation room with Pony-boy and Lucifer and Eve were out in the bullpen. He knew the moment when Beatrice fell asleep, and he went to go find Ella who was in the lab. “Miss Lopez, may I ask you to watch the little urchin? I have to step out for a moment…” he asked, ignoring Eve at his side. 

“Oh! Of course!” Ella said. “Poor kid… she’s been through a lot tonight, huh?”

Lucifer set the little girl on an empty chair and he clasped the forensic scientist’s shoulder as he walked past her and out of the precinct. He ignored Eve as she pressured him to take her with him so that they could punish Tiernan together, but he took off into the night by himself. He went back and forth on punishing the man himself or bringing him back for the Detective, and ultimately he opted not to hurt the man. He wanted to very badly, but he knew that Chloe wouldn’t want him to (it was so very hard not to hurt him, and if he put the handcuffs on just a little too tight, well that was for scaring Beatrice).

He saw Chloe when he walked in with Tiernan and passed him off to another officer. He was about to say something to her when he heard a cry from the lab. It sounded like it was Beatrice, so he rushed forward with the Detective at his heels and before anyone in the lab could move to soothe the little girl, he had her in his arms. 

“You were gone!” Beatrice sobbed into his shoulder. “You were gone, and I thought…”

“Never, dear heart,” he told her. “Not as long as I’ve got to protect you.” He didn’t feel the need or the confidence to speak the ‘which is forever’ out loud but he knew that the Detective had gathered what he meant. He managed to calm the little girl enough that he could slip her into the Detective’s arms. 

The Douche came in and tried to take the little girl, saying her had to get her to bed, but she refused to go with him. “I want to stay with Lucifer,” the urchin told her father, “he saved me, and I want to stay with him… Please, Daddy?”

Daniel sighed and glared at him, but he told her he could as long as her mother stayed with them. So, he ended up in the back seat of a car for the second time that night with Beatrice in his lap. Eve was watching him with an expression he’d never really seen on her face, but he couldn’t be bothered to deal with it at the moment. He had the Detective use the valet so that they could go upstairs as quickly as possible and he settled the girl and her mother on the couch for a moment.

Eve followed him into his room and started talking to him as he stripped the bed (everything except the pillow he used, the Detective had told him that the reason she liked the blanket so much was in part because it smelled like him, so he figured the pillow would help the two Deckers to relax and there were the occasions after Malcolm when she would call him and ask him to bring the both of them something that smelled like him) and put new sheets and blankets on it. He wasn’t listening to her, had barely registered her presence until she pushed at his arm. “Lucifer, what are you doing?” she hissed.

“Changing the sheets for the Detective and her spawn,” he told her. “They’re sleeping in here tonight because I want them close.”

“What about us?” she asked him, crossing her arms.

“You can sleep in the guest room, I’ll be on the couch,” he told her. She was frowning at him and when she asked why he wouldn’t be in the guest room with her in a seductive tone, he replied, “That little girl in there almost died and for whatever reason she wants me to stay close to her… Don’t know why she’d want a monster like me near her at a time like this, but she does, so I’ll be on the couch, my dear.” He dumped the dirty sheets onto the closet floor and went back out to the living room. He knelt in front of the Detective and her daughter (and he heard Eve gasp at him but couldn’t bring himself to care why (it was because he was the King of Hell and he never kneeled before anyone before and that was… to her it seemed like a big deal, but to him… to him this was Chloe and her spawn)) and asked Chloe if her daughter was alright. 

Chloe nodded. “She’s asleep, I think,” she said as quietly as she could, “but I don’t think it’s deep…” 

Lucifer hummed and reached out stroking the little girl’s hair. “Come on, darling… Let’s get the both of you in bed,” he told her. He knew that Chloe wouldn’t want to be away from her daughter especially if he was around (she was terrified, she’d said, and he’d just wanted her to feel safe, for her daughter to feel that way too…). He led her to the bed and Chloe set the little girl down as he pulled the covers back. He could feel Eve watching them from the doorway, but the only thing he was worried about in this moment was Beatrice Decker. He followed the Detective over to the side of the bed that was usually his and he tucked her in like he had her daughter. The little girl was still wrapped in the blanket he’d given her earlier, and he watched as the Detective settled her head on the pillow and took a deep breath. She turned her nose into the fabric and took a deep breath making him smile.

“It smells like you,” Chloe told him with a light blush.

He shook his head and gave her a small, sad smirk. Tucking her and the urchin into bed, he turned the lights down low as he started to walk out of the room, but he was stopped by the little girl’s small voice. “You didn’t kiss our foreheads, Lucifer,” she told him through a yawn. “You’re s’posed to kiss us both on the forehead…”

“Am I?” he asked, his heart aching because the Detective was terrified of him now and could he really be allowed to kiss their brows like Trixie used to make him do every time she’d had a nightmare and he’d been over at the Detective’s? But the little girl nodded emphatically, and Lucifer walked back over to them. He placed a kiss to Beatrice’s forehead first, soft and quick and gentle, but with Chloe… with Chloe he lingered as he always had. “Sleep well,” he told them.

Before he could leave, Beatrice caught him again. “You’re gonna be close right?” she asked. “You’re… you’re gonna keep us safe?”

Lucifer watched as the little girl blinked up at him slowly, trying to keep her eyes open. “Yes, I’ll be close, dear heart,” he told her. “I’ll protect you and mum however I can, darling. Sleep now, you little urchin.” He stood in the doorway until he was sure she was fully asleep. He felt the Detective’s eyes on him and looked at her after a long moment. She gave him a genuine smile and mouthed a ‘thank you’ at him from across the room. 

Eve was waiting for him on the couch, but he couldn’t… she always wanted so much from him and tonight he just… he wanted, no he needed a comfort she couldn’t give. He stopped himself from snapping at her, told her that she should just go to bed because he was going to be up for a while. She scoffed and gave him that hard look again, but he shook his head at her with a tired sigh as she walked off in a huff. He’d hit his limit. He was _tired_ and he needed… well, he didn’t know what he needed, but he knew that it wasn’t her. She was… too much for him at a moment like this.

He poured himself a drink and sat heavily on the couch. He’d stay there the whole night, watching over the two women in his bed. He leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and stared down at the glass in his hand. He looked up when he heard someone at the doorway to his room. Chloe was staring at him and he just stared back at her. He thought she was going to warn him, to tell him to never go near her daughter again but she just sat next to him and placed a hand against his back. His eyes closed and he let a big breath out of his lungs. She started to rub his back, and he let his eyes close as he listed toward her. He knew it wasn’t on purpose, but he felt a little guilty for it anyway. “I hope you know, darling… I would… I would do anything to protect that little urchin,” he told her, but he couldn’t make herself look at her, because she was scared of him now…

“I know, Lucifer,” she told him. “I know you would. Thank you for-”

“You don’t have to thank me for that, love… I…” he sighed and sat back. “If any harm had come to her, Tiernan would be dead…”

Chloe sighed. “I can’t even imagine if…” She sobbed once, “Lucifer, if she’d been hurt, I would have… You wouldn’t have been able to stop me from killing him…” He watched as she sniffled and wiped at her eyes. “I’m just… I’m so glad you were here… If she had been and you were gone, I’d… She’d be…”

He hushed her. “It’s alright, darling,” he told her as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders (and she cuddled into his side and slid both her arms around his waist, clinging, and he was… he didn’t know what it meant, but he wanted it, wanted her, but he was with Eve now and… and he couldn’t want the Detective anymore because she was scared of him… she couldn’t accept him…(but could she? She was… she was seeking comfort from him now and she hadn’t… she hadn’t run)). She was tucked into his side and he pulled her closer. “She’s not hurt, Chloe, she’s perfectly fine…” 

“That’s not stopping you from watching over us tonight, is it?” she asked him as she rested her head against his chest. “You think he’ll have someone try again?” she whispered after a long moment of quiet between them. 

“I don’t think he will,” Lucifer sighed. “I’m just…”

“Worried?” she asked him. 

He hummed in consideration but didn’t nod (the little girl had asked him to keep her and her mother safe, and that was what he was going to do). He wouldn’t call what he was being now worried. Cautious perhaps, but not worried he just… He wanted to make sure Beatrice was safe. “You should get some sleep, darling,” he told her. 

“I don’t think I could…” she told him softly. Because of him, he assumed… because she was scared of him. She yawned, “I want you close…”

He looked down at her as she snuggled deeper into him. His face was slack with shock. She was… she was supposed to be scared of him not… not snuggling him. He held her close and waited until she was fast asleep, and then he waited longer. As soon as he was sure she was asleep, he picked her up and carried her back to bed. This time he didn’t forget to kiss both of their foreheads as he tucked them in (and if Chloe had snuggled his pillow, well, he just had to give her a fond smile as he moved her hair away from her face). 

He stood in the doorway until the sun started to lighten the sky, and then he made his way to the kitchen before anyone could wake. He started making breakfast (sausages, eggs, pancakes, and fruit salad) and he was wondering if he should make more, when the three ladies he had in his home walked into the kitchen. 

“Lucifer!” Trixie grinned, and then she wrapped her arms around his waist. 

He lifted his arms out of the way, alarmed, but then he relaxed almost immediately. He patted her head and asked (mostly so she would let go of him), “Would you like pancakes, you hellion?”

“With lots and lots of syrup and powdered sugar!” she demanded. 

He went to make her a plate, ignoring Chloe as she told him, “Don’t give her that much sugar, Lucifer! She’ll get hyper and sticky and-”

“Darling,” he cut her off, “urchins are supposed to be sticky, and the little love did have a rough night last night… it’s only fair…”

He set the plate of sugar down in front of the child along with a glass of apple juice and another plate with eggs and sausage and fruit on it. Trixie immediately dug in, grinning at the two of them. Lucifer turned and made Chloe a plate as well. He shooed her to sit down and doctored her a cup of coffee that was in front of her before anyone could blink. He sighed and stared at the two Deckers as they sat as his kitchen bar. He didn’t let himself stare for long before he made Eve a plate as well. She was frowning at him, but he didn’t get to ask her why she was upset because Trixie asked him if he could get her a special blanket for the penthouse for her like her mom had. 

“I suppose so,” Lucifer shrugged. “Light blue or purple?” 

“Purple!” she exclaimed bouncing in her seat a little, and perhaps all that sugar was a mistake, but he wasn’t going to admit that to the Detective, especially since she was giving him that annoyed look, she gave him sometimes (most of the time). 

He nodded and made a mental note to buy the urchin a blanket and yawned. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, opening them when a hand touched his. “Are you going to eat?” Chloe asked him. 

He stared at her for a moment, shocked that she would be thinking of him, of his well-being… No one ever… not many people worry about him so he was just a little surprised that she would. “’Course, I am,” he said, turning to make himself a plate (mostly because she told him to). 

Lucifer listened to the little girl babble on about how her day was going to be and did she have to go to school today and couldn’t they just stay with Lucifer until dinner time which would be much more fun than school. Lucifer laughed at Chloe’s frustration and only felt a little sad (it was more than a little, it was a lot actually) that Chloe was making her daughter go to school, and that they better get going because they were going to be late if they didn’t leave right then. He walked them to the elevator and wished them both a good day with a pat to the head (Beatrice) and a gentle kiss to the cheek (the Detective). 

He sighed deeply as he stared at the elevator long after they disappeared. He knew it was pathetic, but he just… he missed them already. He shook himself from the haze he was in an turned back towards the couch (ordering the little urchin’s blanket so it would be at the Detective’s door by that afternoon). He settled, staring at the glass he’d left there overnight. It was still half full. Eve walked into his eye line and he looked up at her as she crossed her arms. Her face was serious in the same way he’d seen the night before whenever the Detective or her spawn was mentioned or was the center of his focus. “Everything alright, my dear?” he asked, trying to smile.

“What was that last night, Lucifer?” she asked frowning. 

Lucifer’s brow furrowed. “What was what?” he asked. 

“All of it!” Eve threw her hands up in the air. “Chloe and her daughter, not punishing the bad guy!”

“He was properly frightened by the time I got him to the Detective,” Lucifer said, his voice low and carrying a hint of a growl, subsonic and terrifying if Eve’s reaction was anything to go by (a shiver and not the aroused kind, the scared kind, he knew the difference). “And the Detective and her daughter are mine to protect!” he added, unable to stop the growl as it kept building and building into a snarl at the thought of the two Deckers coming to harm.

“This is what I’m talking about! Yesterday you didn’t care that I was held at gun point too!” She scoffed, crossing her arms. 

“Of course, I cared,” he scoffed. “Why did you think I was so angry yesterday?!”

“Because of the child!” Eve said with a snarl of her own.

Lucifer scoffed, “She’s breakable, Eve, more so than you are.”

Eve shook her head and scoffed, “Unbelievable!” She started to walk away but then she turned back to him. “Was it really necessary for them to stay with us? For them to be in our bed?”

“It’s what Beatrice wanted,” Lucifer told her, his voice hard and a little dangerous.

“She’s more important to you than me!” she screamed.

“Of course, she is!” he roared, standing and his hand clenching around his glass, shattering it. “She’s more important than anyone!”

Eve looked betrayed, but then her face hardened, “I knew you cared more about Chloe than you do me. Every single time she’s around, you… you do something like this! Like last night! I saw the two of you on the couch!”

Lucifer rolled his eyes, “That was just the Detective being unable to sleep…”

“No, Lucifer!” Eve laughed bitterly. “That was you caring about another woman more than you cared about me! I tried to get you to-”

“You relish violence, Eve!” Lucifer shouted. “You love it! It makes you want to fuck someone, anyone!” He turned away from her, but turned back, still not done, “The Detective and I, we don’t! I’ve had enough violence to last me more than a few eons, and I am _tired_!” He was breathing hard, and he watched Eve’s face settle in shock. He sighed, resigned, “Perhaps you care about me, Eve, but I… it feels like you don’t care what I want, what I need… And last night that was the Detective and her daughter close, so I knew they weren’t in danger.” 

“Luce…” she started, shocked.

“Don’t… don’t call me that, please,” he sighed. “She needed me yesterday, the both of them did. They still might and I will be there for them whenever they ask.” He shook his head. “If that’s something you can’t handle, my dear, then perhaps we should part…”

Eve stared at him, shocked and sad and she said, “Lucifer, I don’t… I don’t want you to… I don’t want us to break up…”

Lucifer sighed heavily. “I’m different now, Eve… you are too…” He looked down at his hands and shook his head. “I don’t think it can be helped, my dear… You make me someone I don’t want to be…”

“But… Lucifer… You…” her eyes filled with tears.

“I care for you, Eve… but I… I don’t like who I am with you…” he looked up at her for a long moment. “You deserve someone who makes you more of yourself, not… not someone you try to be a part of.”

Eve gaped at him in shock and eventually, silently she walked away, packed her things, and left. He hadn’t meant for her to leave then, he’d been about to offer to leave for a while, to stay at another one of his properties, but she’d left before he could bring himself to say anything. He knew she was a little bit devastated, but he couldn’t… there was nothing he could do that wouldn’t invite her back into his arms, and that wasn’t what either of them needed. 

He sat in his penthouse, alone and quiet until he couldn’t handle it any longer. He called Linda and asked her if she was available at any point during the day to talk. And he set up an appointment with her for later that day. He sighed and decided to get ready for the day, he tried to resist texting the Detective, resist asking her if he could come over and see her and the spawn after his appointment, but he failed. He was much too nervous to wait for her response so he jumped into shower and tried not to think about how she might respond. He almost avoided his phone, the little, green, blinking light telling him that he had a text message, as he dressed. It was almost time for his appointment, and when he couldn’t avoid it any longer, he picked up his phone and checked it as he got into the elevator. 

_sure, you can come over after your appointment if you want_

He let out a breath and texted her that he would be over as soon as his appointment was finished. He got into his car and drove almost on autopilot to Linda’s office. She welcomed him in, and she didn’t push as he sat in silence for a long moment. 

“Thank you for seeing me, Doctor…” he said, sitting back with a sigh. 

Linda smiled at him, “Of course, Lucifer. That’s why I’m here.”

He nodded absently and sighed. “I was… The Detective’s offspring- Beatrice… came to visit last night…” 

Linda blinked. “Visit you? At the penthouse?”

Lucifer hummed in confirmation. “Eve wasn’t pleased… but then Tiernan sent some men to kill me…” Linda’s eyes widened, and Lucifer rushed to explain, “She’s fine, I… I saved them…”

“Them?”

“The urchin and Eve…” he sighed. He looked down at his hands and shook his head. “She was in danger because of something _I_ did!”

“She?” Linda asked, thrown a little by the continued use of the singular.

“The spawn… She was… she was very frightened… it was… she didn’t want me to leave her… It was Daniel’s night with her and she… she wanted to stay with me…” he sighed. “He let her as long as the Detective was with her… Daniel, he’s… he’s not a fan of me at the moment.” 

“So, Chloe and Trixie spent the night?” Linda asked. “What did Eve think?” 

Lucifer shook his head. “She didn’t understand…”

There was a short silence between them, and Linda couldn’t help but ask him to start at the beginning.

“I saved them… the Spawn was scared, and I… Eve tried to take her from me… and I didn’t react well to that.” Lucifer shook his head lightly. “I… She didn’t understand… she’s never seen me with the little urchin and I, well, I was feeling particularly territorial.” At Linda’s confused head tilt and squint, he clarified. “I growled at her but not the Detective when she arrived and tried to take her daughter.”

“And that was okay? That Chloe tried to take her?” Linda asked.

“She’s her mother,” Lucifer sighed. “She smelled safe, comforting, familiar…”

“She smelled… you know what,” Linda raised her hands like she was done, “we’ll come back to that later… But it is understandable that you let Chloe close since she is Trixie’s mother.”

Lucifer nodded. “I let them sleep in my bed… Eve didn’t like that either…”

“Why did you let them?” 

“After Malcolm, Beatrice would have nightmares. It helped the both of them sleep if they could… They liked to use a pillow of mine. I’d bring it over for them to use whenever the Detective called,” he sighed.

“So you had them in your bed to comfort them,” Linda inferred, and Lucifer nodded. “Eve wasn’t pleased, but you didn’t try to explain it to her?”

“She didn’t understand why I wanted them close, I told her that I needed to watch over them,” Lucifer sighed. When Linda asked him why, he told her, “I wanted to be sure they were safe, and I knew that even if they were in my bed, they’d want me close…” He paused for a long moment. “I had thought that the Detective would be wary, but… it seemed like she wanted me there…”

“That surprised you?” Linda asked. 

Lucifer hummed. “She told me she was terrified of me a few months ago…” he sighed. “I didn’t want to… if she was scared, I didn’t want her to feel like she had to protect her daughter from me…”

“But she didn’t?”

“No, she was… she was relieved I was there,” he said, and he still couldn’t quite believe it. “She even… after Beatrice fell asleep, she came and sat with me… fell asleep on me…” He shook his head. “She didn’t… she told me she was glad I was there to protect the urchin.”

“Chloe still trusts you,” Linda said, making him look up at her. “Isn’t that good?”

Lucifer nodded slowly. “Yes, I… yes…”

“Do you remember how long it took me to get used to the fact that you’re the Devil?” she asked him, catching his eye. “Chloe has to do what I did, but she also had to come to terms with the fact that she loves you. I think she already has, given how she reacted to your presence last night…”

Lucifer didn’t say anything, just frowned and looked at his hands. Perhaps… perhaps Linda was right… Perhaps the Detective… Perhaps Chloe had… acclimated…

After a moment of silence, Lucifer stood and told the Doctor that he had to go. He made sure to thank her for her time and then he drove to the Detective’s apartment. He had meant to get there while Chloe was there, but her car was gone when he’d arrived. There was a box on the doorstep, and he knew that it was Beatrice’s new blanket, so he brought it inside for her (unboxed it and laid it over her bed so she would be surprised.). He didn’t know if the Detective would welcome him like this, like she used to (when he could just show up and she would come home and offer him a soft smile like she had missed him and he was always welcome and he… he hadn’t realized that he missed it that much).

He glanced at the clock and noticed that she would be home soon with Beatrice, so he started to prepare a snack for the little girl. Just apples and peanut butter prepared precisely the way the urchin liked, cut into slices with crunchy peanut butter on the side. He finished slicing the apple as soon as the Detective and her offspring came through the door.

“Lucifer!” Beatrice shouted and rushed at him. Her arms came around his waist and he tried very hard not to smile. She frowned suddenly, and turned her head toward her mother, “Do I _have_ to go to Daddy’s house tonight? Lucifer’s here…”

“’Fraid so, Monkey,” Chloe sighed. “Daddy needs to make sure you’re okay after yesterday, too.” Trixie pouted, but after Chloe asked her to do her homework and Lucifer placed her snack in front of her, she easily agreed. 

Chloe grinned at him and pulled him over to the couch. “You okay?” Chloe asked him. 

He looked down at her hand and she tried to pull it away from him, but he put both of his hands over hers and sighed. “No, its….” He tried but he couldn’t find the words. “Eve was… She didn’t understand that…”

“Dan doesn’t either,” Chloe told him.

“I talked to Linda…” Lucifer sighed. “She was helpful…”

Chloe’s head cocked to the side, “About Eve?” 

“No, well, a bit,” he sighed. “But it was about you too… the both of you…”

“Oh, okay,” Chloe nodded, and she scooted a little closer to him hesitantly like she was waiting for him to tell her to back away.

He leaned back and slipped an arm around Chloe as he did so. She rested her head on his shoulder and Lucifer marveled that she was letting him be this close, that she was leaning into him. “She said that… you had, perhaps, gotten used to that fact that I’m… well, what I am…” he tried, but he couldn’t look at her. 

“I have,” she said. “The, uh, the face is still a little difficult to get used to, but I think… it doesn’t scare me anymore… at least not like it did.” She scooted closer and buried her nose into his neck for a moment. “I could get used to it; I think… If I saw it again…”

Lucifer’s brow furrowed. He couldn’t fathom how anyone could, but this was the Detective and he did trust her… but he… he couldn’t expect her, anyone, to actually accept him (even Eve hadn’t accepted him, she just wanted who he had been…). “Well, I wouldn’t expect you to, darling,” he sighed. “It’s… it’s monstrous.” He didn’t let himself add the ‘like me’ that he had wanted to.

“No,” Chloe told him, and his eyes shot to hers. “It’s not monstrous, Lucifer, it’s a part of you… and I… I shouldn’t have lost sight of that.”

Lucifer blinked at her. He wasn’t… she was… “What?” he asked slightly in disbelief.

“I… I love you, Lucifer, I love all of you and that face, your face, is a part of you, and it took me some time, but I… I can accept all of you now… and I would have been able to sooner if I hadn’t left…” she told him. Her eyes filled with tears, and Lucifer wanted to wipe them away, but he couldn’t make himself move. “I regret leaving so much, Lucifer… I should’ve stayed, and…”

“Chloe…” he started, in awe and so much happier than he thought he ever had the right to be.

“Mommy, Lucifer, can you help me with this math problem?” Trixie asked suddenly, making the two of them jump. 

“Sure, baby,” Chloe said and then she tugged him over to the table where her daughter was, and they listened to her read aloud. It was simple math and Lucifer let the Detective explain it, while he thought about what she’d told him. The Detective was trustworthy, she always had been, save for… for the unpleasantness with Father Kinley, which still stung but she’d apologized which was more then he’d ever gotten from his brothers and sister and, of course, Maze. She said she loved him… and he was… she loved him…

He moved in close to her, his arm slipping around his waist, and placed a kiss to the back of her head as she leaned into him. Trixie was watching them with an enormous grin, and he rolled his eyes. As soon as the little urchin was finished with her homework her mother sent her off to pack a bag to go to her dad’s house, and Lucifer smirked. He heard her quiet gasp and chuckled as she raced out of her room and crashed into his legs for the third time that day. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lucifer!” she grinned, looking up at him. And then she raced away again. 

“What was that?” Chloe asked, with a fond chuckle. 

“Lucifer got me a blanket like the one from his house!” Trixie shouted from her room before Lucifer could say something. “Can I bring it with me to Daddy’s house?!”

Chloe looked at Lucifer and gave him a fond smile as she told Trixie that she could. Daniel was only a little late and Trixie was clinging to Lucifer’s leg and refusing to let go until he gave her a proper hug (and the fact that he’d had to give her one in front of Dan was just… well, Dan had scoffed at him, and Lucifer had ignored the verbal jabs the other man had thrown at him, but Trixie had been frowning at her father whenever he spoke directly to Lucifer and the fact that a _child_ had picked up on the hostility in the other man’s voice was… Well, Lucifer hoped that Daniel would stop being mad at him soon enough).

As soon as the door closed behind them, Chloe and Lucifer stared at each other until Lucifer shook himself. He insisted on making her something to eat even as she told him she wasn’t very hungry but as soon as he put together the ingredients of a grilled cheese she smiled shyly at him and let him make her a simple grilled cheese (and yes, he was hoping for a little bit of a redo of their last date, but she… she said she loved him, so perhaps she would let him have this at the very least). She insisted that they sit on the floor in front of the couch and Lucifer couldn’t help but stare at her as she told him about her day. “Just laundry and cleaning and I tried to read a book, but there was a _Master Chef_ marathon on and I- Why are you staring at me like that?” she cut herself off.

Lucifer shook his head. “You’re just… you’re perfect, darling, and I… I do love you, is all…”

“Oh, is that all?” Chloe asked him with a soft grin, and then she climbed over him so that she was straddling him, hovering over his lap. 

“I… yes…” he gasped as she leaned down and skimmed her nose alongside his. 

“Lucifer,” Chloe whispered, and he shuddered against her. “Can I kiss you?” she asked him.

“Yes, of course,” he told her, clutching at her back almost desperately. “Whenever you like…” 

So, Chloe kissed him, soft and slow and with just enough pull to keep him chasing her mouth as she pulled away and how could she stop when he was so very wrecked without her? She pulled away enough to rest her forehead against hers and he was… he wanted to kiss her again, but he was a little beyond words, so he brought a hand up to her face stroked her cheek reverently. He whispered her name, and she breathed his into his mouth as she kissed him again (and again and again and again and he wanted her to always be kissing him, but perhaps he was getting a little ahead of himself…).


End file.
